Combined shoulder brace and garment supporter



'H. M. FOSTER.

COMBINED-SHOULDER BRACE AND GARMENT SUPPORTER.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.30, 1921.

1,41 3mm, v Patented Apr. 18, 1922.

iIUGH M. FOSTER, OF GLOBE, ARIZONA.

COMBINED SHOULDER BRACE AND GARMENT SUPPORTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 18, 1922.

Application filed August 30, 1921. Serial No. 496,887.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HUGH M. F OSTER, a citizen of the l nited States, residing at (llobe'. in the county of Gila and State of Arizona, have invented or discovered certain new and useful Improvements in Combined Shoulder Braces and Garment Supporters, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

This invention has for its object to provide a combined shoulder brace and trousers or drawers and stocking supporter which is more especially intended for childrens use, but which, if made in proper sizes, may be used by grown persons. The improved device comprises two shoulder straps, preferably of elastic webbing, crossed at their back parts and attached together at the point of crossing. The four lower ends of these straps are provided with loops which are adjustable by means of buckles so that the straps may be lengthened or shortened as may be desired. Engaged with each of these loops is a flattened or elliptical metallic eye. and to each pair of these eyes are attached the upper ends of a doubled tab into the lower or looped portion ofwhich is entered a flattened eye portion of a metallic trousers or drawers supporter with which is connected a short strap, preferably of elastic webbing, to the lower end of which is attached, by means of a buckle, two stocking supporters or garters each of which is provided with a separable metallic fastening for engagement with a stocking.

In the accompanying drawing Fig. 1 is a general view of the improved device, and Fig. 2 is a detail view, on a larger scale than Fig. 1. of the lower part of one of the supporters.

Referring to the drawing, 12 denotes two shoulder straps crossed at their back parts and attached, preferably by stitching, at their point of crossing 13. Each of the four lower ends of these straps is formed into a loop 14, each loop being adjustably connected with the body portion of the strap by a buckle 15 of well-known form. Engaged with each of the loops 14 is a flattened or elliptical metallic eye 16. and to each pair of these eyes are attached the upper ends of a folded or doubled tab 17 the lower end of which affords a loop passing through an eye portion of a trousers or drawers supporter 18. Each of these supporters for bifurcated garments comprises an enlarged circular portion 18' adapted for the passage therethrough of a button on the trousers or drawers, said supporters being formed with a narrow loop 18*, below said circular portion, adapted to engage the shank or stitching of a button,

Attached to each of the garment supporters is a strap 19, preferably consisting of a short piece of elastic webbing, and to the lower end of each of these straps is adjustably attached, by means of a buckle 20, two stocking supporting tapes 21 each of which is provided with a separable or twopart stocking fastening. Each of these stocking fastenings comprises a metal loop 22 the upper end of which is attached to a tape 21 by a loop formed in the tape, while the other portion of said stocking fastening comprises a stud part 23 attached to a continuation of the tape 21 beyond the loop just referred to in the tape. The stocking is engaged with each of the stocking fasteners by pressing a portion of the same through the looped part 22 when the said stud part is lifted so as to register with the wider portion of said loop, and then by forcing the stud part downward into the narrow portion of said loop the stocking fabric will be locked to the fastener.

The front portions of the straps 12 are intended to bear against the front of the shoulders of the wearer so as to have a tendency topull backward on the shoulders, adapting the device to serve as a shoulder brace, while the pull on the lower ends of the said front portions of said straps is resisted by the lower ends of the back portions of said straps which are intended to extend from the point of crossing 13 around the sides of the wearer to connections with the lower ends of the front portions of said straps.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that the invention provides a shoulder brace, afforded by the crossed shoulder straps 12, and which shoulder brace may be properly tightened so as to hold back the shoulders of the wearer by a proper adjustment of the buckles 15 by which the loops at the lower ends of said straps may be lengthened or shortened. The garment supporters 18, 18 and 18*, adapted to be engaged with buttons on the trousers or drawers of the wearer, afford convenient means for bolding up these bifurcated garments, while the stocking supporter portions of the device comprise convenient means for detachably attaching the stockings of the wearer thereto.

Having thus described my invention I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A combined shoulder brace and garment supporter comprising two shoulder straps crossed at their back portions and attached together at their point of crossing, to afford a shoulder brace, the four lower ends of said straps being each provided with an adjustable loop, said four lower ends affording two pairs of loops, and a combined bifurcated garment and stocking supporter connected with each pair of said loops.

2. A combined shoulder brace and arment supporter comprising two shou der straps crossed at their back portions and attached together at their point of crossing, to afford a shoulder brace, the four lower ends of said straps being each provided with an adjustable loop, said four lower ends affording two pairs of loops, and a combined bifurcated garment and stocking supporter connected with each pair of said loops, said combined bifurcated garment and stocking supporters each comprising a metallic loop for engagement with a but-.

ton on the trousers or drawers of the wearer, and an elastic strap with'which is adjustably connected two separable stocking fasteners.

3. A combined shoulder brace and garment supporter comprising two shoulder straps which are crossed and attached together at their back parts, to afford a shoulder brace, said straps each having two looped lower ends, buckles adjustably connecting said looped lower ends with the body parts of said straps, flattened eyes in the loops of said looped lower ends, doubled tabs looped at their tops into said eyes, supporters for bifurcatedgarments attached to the looped lower ends of said tabs, and twostocking supporters attached to each of said supporters for bifurcated garments.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

HUGH M. FOSTER. 

